Canada rethinks strip malls

[FarCenter]

AFP - Strip malls -- once anchors of postwar North American suburban neighborhoods -- are doomed, with thousands across Canada and the United States already derelict and eyed by land developers.

But at least one Canadian academic sees value in maintaining the ubiquitous local retailing plazas, and has amassed proposals such as adding community gardens or toboggan slides, or morphing them into giant bee hives or parking lots for food caravans.

"Strip malls were once the economic hubs of new suburbs," said Rob Shields, a sociology professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who received a government grant to rethink strip malls to benefit communities around them. For more than 50 years, retailers favored the rows of boxy single-story shops opening onto a common parking lot facing major roadways bringing commuters driving between their suburban homes and downtown workplaces. But they are losing favor due to rising fuel prices, traffic congestion and city planners' demands to make cities denser as part of a drive for more "walkable" cities.

More than 11 percent of strip malls in North America are derelict, representing 300 million square feet of vacant retail space, according to the Washington-based Urban Land Institute. The rest are arguably in decline.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120129-canada-rethinks-strip-malls

[polly7]

1. I can't believe all the malls I'm seeing lately that are either shut down, or contain

so very few stores that they're likely to be closed soon. One thing seems consistent .... WalMart was once in all of them.

[Snake Alchemist]

3. I've never seen a Walmart in a mall?

[polly7]

4. Really ? There are .. or were, a lot of them around me.

The Estevan Shopper's Mall, Regina Southland Mall, Brandon Shopper's Mall, just some of them .... they all had WalMarts.

[Snake Alchemist]

5. Weird. I've always seen them as stand-alone stores.

Maybe a few satellite stores around them like a McDonald's in the parking lot, but that's about it.

[Broderick]

6. They recently built a Walmart Grocery only store, a mere two miles from a Super Walmart

and it is the middle anchor in a shopping center. Built close to me.

[Snake Alchemist]

8. I actually like the Walmart Neighborhood Markets.

Usually have a decent selection, but I find their meat selection lacking sometimes. How do you NOT carry flank steak?

[Broderick]

10. Meat products at any WalMart

is nasty in my experience. I long for the days of having a butcher around. Those days are long gone in my neck of the woods.

[Snake Alchemist]

14. I've found that even so-called butchers aren't really butchers anymore.

How can you call yourself a butcher and not know how to french a rack of lamb? Just one of my recent experiences.

[polly7]

7. Here's an article on just the one ... oops, two (I forgot about the Northgate Mall) in Regina.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2010/02/10/sk-regina-wal-mart.html

I honestly can't think of a mall around here that didn't have a WalMart in it.

[laundry_queen]

11. I think it was a Canadian thing from when

Walmart took over, I think it was, Woolco. They put their stores in malls. Slowly, however, they are pulling out of those malls, and without Walmart as an anchor store, quite a few malls are going under. Here in Edmonton my favorite mall went under after Walmart pulled out and built their 'supercentre' nearby. They bulldozed the mall even though it was relatively 'new' (built in the 80's) and put up a condo complex.

I have to say the 'big box' store phenomena is the fucking dumbest thing I've ever seen developed here in Canada. What shopping families WANT to do when it's -30 is buckle and unbuckle their kids 40 times, kids crying and screaming from a cold car, just to get errands done. I remember when malls were the big thing - you went in, grabbed a large shopping cart, and spent the whole day in the mall, getting everything done in warmth and comfort. I effing HATE going from store to store, driving on the poorly designed roads that snake around the big box stores, damn near getting in an accident every single time (AHEM South Edmonton Common). And the stores are always *just* far enough apart that you can't park and walk with your kids in a stroller. Big box 'parks' are a scurge on our society, IMHO.

[polly7]

12. Yes, you're right.

Only a few years before WalMart pulled out of the Estevan Mall, they blocked access to it from within the mall ...... that had already hurt a lot of the businesses, as before .. you'd wonder from one to the other. WalMart pretty much sold everything the smaller stores did, so people just entered the WM entrance, bought, and left.

It's sad to see so many of the stores in the malls closing. They just can't compete.

And ..... I agree, they are a scurge. I f'ing hate WalMart!

[ejpoeta]

2. well here in wny our local city they built

a couple of these right as everything went bust. Target came in and a few other places and Lowes too. Now lowes sits empty as half of the other places do too.... There is no incentive for the owner.... makes more money with them sitting empty with the write offs than renting them out.

[marmar]

9. Giant bee hives? I like that.

[Javaman]

13. Check out this site...

http://deadmalls.com/

[ellisonz]

15. lol

One of those is just up the boulevard. Hawthorne Mall, Hawthorne, CA: http://deadmalls.com/malls/hawthorne_mall.html